NETIMPERATIVE — Sep 27 — Piczo’s traffic has grown 393% in one year (comScore Mediametrix) and now boasts 4 million unique visitors in the UK, reaching 60% of the young teen demographic in the UK.
Mark Brooks: I don't see Piczo in the press much, but they have done a great job of targetting too-young-for-MySpace users.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIME — Sep 25 — European internet users are far more engaged in online dating than their North American counter parts, according to research revealed on Monday. 18%, or 38 million European internet users visited online personals in July, slightly higher than the 17% of North Americans. comScore shows that European visitors viewed an average of 310 pages per visitor in July – 44% more pages than their North American counterparts. The online personals audience in North America remained flat compared to last July, while the personals audience in Europe grew 26%. FULL ARTICLE @ IBTIMES
Mark Brooks: See the left side bar for European site rankings. I’m available at London, 020-8133-1835, for commentary.
OPW — Sep 24 — The European internet dating convention stands to have record attendance. Over 120, up 50% over last year. Last year there were 80 attendees at the Prague convention. – Mark Brooks
BUSINESS WEEK — Sep 11 — Repeating MySpace's success in the big, fragmented European market won't be a cakewalk, analysts say. MySpace's competitors in Europe already have established themselves with local audiences, offering targeted content in native languages. MySpace is adapting, launching a British version in April and its first non-English-language site in France in August. On Sept. 11, it unveiled its latest country-specific site in Germany. MySpace aims eventually to roll out sites in other European countries, and later in China and India. It's signing up local bands, adding native language videos, and staging events such as the popular "secret shows," where Indie and mainstream musicians play exclusive concerts for lucky MySpace members. Bebo has more market share in Britain than MySpace, according to Hitwise. In August, reports emerged that Bebo might team up with Viacom (VIA ), whose deep pockets would allow a more serious challenge to Murdoch. Ringo.com, a photo-sharing site owned by Monster, tops the social-networking rankings in France and Spain. Other rivals are adopting niche strategies to survive MySpace's European push. Startup MyStrands, based in Barcelona, Spain and Corvallis, Ore., is a "music recommendation" site that blends social networking with music reviews to help its users find new tunes and share their preferences with others. In August, Viacom's MTV Networks launched its own social-network site in Europe (Italy and Britain), called MTVFlux, that combines the company's music know-how with the interactive elements of Web 2.0.
The full article was originally published at Business Week, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Here are some more well established, international social networks…
Arto.dk (Denmark), ASmallWorld (Euro), Cyworld (South Korea), Epuls.pl (Poland), EveryonesConnected (UK), Faceparty (UK), Fropper (India), Grono (Poland), Hyves (Netherlands), IRC Galleria (Finland), Mixi (Japan), Nexopia (Canada), Passado (Euro), Playahead (Sweden), ProfileHeaven (UK), Rate.ee (Estonia), Yeeyoo (China), Yeskee (China), Yonja (Turkey)
BBC NEWS — Sep 9 — First Great Western is starting what it believes is the first speed-dating service on a train. Passengers, who paid £45 for a ticket, travel first class from Paddington with a bell sounding every four minutes to signal time to swap partners. The dating service was set up following a survey carried out by First Great Western which found 13% of people have been chatted up or asked out on a date while travelling by train. FULL ARTICLE @ BBC NEWS
Mark Brooks: Trust the British to come up with something like that 🙂
GALWAY — Aug 23 — With checkmeout.ie, people log onto the website and fill out a questionnaire. They are then sent out cards with a website address along with a pin number. If they see someone out they like, they can simply hand them the card, which allows them to see their details on-line. They can chat on-line and exchange emails.
Mark Brooks: Why hasn't one of the major services (i.e. Match) partnered with Vistaprint to offer this quaint service. You'd think it would be great for word-of-mouth marketing.
OPW — Aug 22 — SingleParents.ie was conceived and developed by web entrepreneurs Kevin Green (a regular at the internet dating convention) and Grainne Barry. Demographic figures in Ireland show an upsurge in the number of single parents. "Separation and divorce are on the upswing in Ireland. 2005 saw a 12.7% increase in divorces over the previous year. While overall divorce rates remain low at 16%, separations are on the increase and there is a fundamental shift towards smaller family sizes and one parent households." comments Greene.
Mark Brooks: By 2008 the majority of family households will be headed by single parents in the USA. This is already true in 15 US states.
THE IRISH POST — Aug 16 — Eiresingles.com helps Irish people living abroad find their ideal Irish partner. One in 10 single Irish people are now looking for love on the internet. Dinnerdates provides dinner dates for single people in their 30s and 40s. One Irishman living in London said: "The bigger the city you are in the more difficult it is. I moved over to London a year ago and have found it difficult to meet a partner."
The full article was originally published at IrishPost, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Anotherfriend.com is Ireland's top dating site. Bebo is their top social networking site.
HUDDERSFIELD.CO.UK — Aug 15 — Some £14.8bn is spent on the search for the perfect partner with a further £15.2bn going on keeping the sparks of love alive, internet dating firm Parship said. Its Cost of Love Index found Britain's 9 million singletons are prepared to spend £1,650 a year: £1,008 goes on nights out "on the pull", £156 on dating services and £602 for an average of seven first dates each year. But the cost of a first date has also got cheaper, down to £69 from £87 in 2005.
The full article was originally published at Huddersfield.co.uk, but is no longer available.
BUSINESS WIRE –Aug 11 — Research and Markets has announced the addition of Online Paid Content – Global Strategic Business Report to their offering analyzing the worldwide markets for Online Paid Content in US$ Million. The major product segments analyzed are Personals/Dating, Entertainment & Lifestyles (Music, Video and Gaming), Business/Investment/Finance, Sports & Games, Research, General News & Archives and Others (Includes greeting cards, Personal growth, credit help, community made directories).
Mark Brooks: The Online Publishers Association also delivers a twice annual U.S. paid content report.
